Do you forward emails and chain letters? Do you receive forwarded emails with FWD, FWD, FWD in the subject line and then send them on to your friends adding your "FWD" in the process? Do you like receiving them and waiting forever for them to load only to end up deleting them after you've forwarded them to everyone?

I think most of us have gotten a little annoyed with the careless and thoughtless forwarding of useless emails full of worthless information from unknown sources that are of little interest to anyone and clutter up our mailboxes and tie up internet resources and connections and usually end with something like "send this to everyone on your mailing list or you will die tomorrow and go straight to hell because God won't like you". Has anyone ever really received an email from God? You would think so by the way they take these messages seriously enough to bother all of their friends with them.

Did you receive a forwarded joke that didn't make you break out laughing? Of course you did. So why did you forward on to everyone in your addy book when it wasn't even funny? Do you think it will get funnier with more "FWD"s in the subject line? Is that how we get rid of lame jokes by forwarding them until no one wants to open them when they see all the forwards?

And what about all the Earth shaking revelations that tell you you're going to get breast cancer from antiperspirant or die from consuming canola oil, or people are stealing kidneys in Florida, or the warning from the terrorist highjacker's girlfriend in California, or you're going to have to start paying 5¢ for every email you send, and all the other hoaxes that get passed around the web? Do you send those to all your friends too without checking them out first? If so, I have placed a link on my Main page to the Urban Legends and Internet Hoaxes website to help you recognize these farces before you faint from shock, sell your home, move to Alaska, and scare the hell out of all your friends too with still another "FWD" in the subject line of a forwarded message that had to come straight from God himself. Believe me, if there are any life altering, Earth shaking discoveries made like you read in these anonymously created emails, you will see it in the newpaper or on the evening news before it ever gets into your email.

This is not just about hoaxes, jokes and religious messages, those are just examples. This page is about email etiquette and the lack of it that occurs far too often.

It's a simple thing to copy and paste a message that you think is important enough to send on to your friends rather than forward all the unwanted junk that came with it. That's just like serving up a good meal to your friends and dumping your kitchen trash can on the table with the food. You wouldn't do that, would you? Then why do you do it with email?

The following is a letter I received from a good friend who wrote it and sent it to everyone in her addy book just before collapsing from frustration and exhaustion after pulling the plug on the MSN-TV terminal when the tv failed to work after being impacted by a flying keyboard, and all just from trying to get through her daily mail. The last I heard, she is doing alright now but has found new uses for the "clean up" and "discard" links in her sidebar for the group elimination of unwanted and unread emails. Using this new routine, she has recaptured and is maintaining her sanity.

This is what she wrote and I thought it worthy of posting it for everyone to see and learn from...



PLEASE~PLEASE~PLEASE~

NO MORE FWD.. FWD.. FWD.. FWD.. FWD.. FWD..FWD.. ETC.. D-E-L-E-T-E

NO MORE PROMISES OF HAPPINESS AND WELL BEING.... 'IF' YOU SEND TO 1,000 PPL WITHIN 5 MINUTES... D-E-L-E-T-E

NO MORE 'FREE COUPONS' THAT DON'T EXSIST... OLD NAVY... VICTORIA'S SECRECT.. ETC... D-E-L-E-T-E

NO MORE FWDS: THAT INCLUDE EVERYONES 'WEB PAGE' SIG BOX... PLEASE MAKE A WEB PAGE TO LINK TOO... DON'T PUT IT ALL ON YOUR E-MAIL PAGE... TAKES FOREVER TO LOAD.. IF EVER.. AND REAL AUDIO JUST SUXXXX... TIES UP THE MAIL SO YA HAVE TO JUST DISCONNECT TO GET OUT OF IT... BEEN THERE AND LEARNED... D-E-L-E-T-E

FWDS OF JPEG ATTACHMENTS... FILLS UP SPACE AND KEEPS YA FROM GETTING IMPORTANT MAIL... LIKE 'YOU HAVE ALREADY WON' OR 'GUARANTEED TO IMPROVE YOUR SEX LIFE' OR 'YOU WILL NOT BE TURNED DOWN'.... LMFAO.. D-E-L-E-T-E

FWDS THAT BY THE TIME IT REACHES MOST OF US YOU GET 'ONE' WORD ON A LINE... YOU CAN'T EVEN READ THE BLASTED THING... 'D-E-L-E-T-E

SOMETIMES I WONDER IF THE MAIL IS EVER REALLY READ BEFORE IT IS FORWARDED... COMES AWFULLY FAST... BING.. BING... BING.. CAN'T BE READING IT.. JUST HITTIN THE DAMN FORWARD BUTTON... AND SEND... D-E-L-E-T-E

FWDS THAT COULD HAVE JUST BEEN A SIMPLE PAGE SENT WITHOUT THE LONG LIST OF FWDS... D-E-L-E-T-E

AND ALSO... IF HAVING A COMMENT TO SOMEONE WHO SENT YOU SOMETHING... PLEASE DIRECT THAT COMMENT TO THE PERSON WHO SENT IT... AND THAT IS 'NOT' USING THE 'REPLY ALL' BUTTON... D-E-L-E-T-E

SORRY... GUESS I JUST HAD A BIT TOO MUCH OF IT TODAY... MUST BE HAVING ONE OF THOSE 'OUT OF BODY AND MIND EXPERIENCES'... IF THERE ARE ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS THEN 'PLEASE' REPLY TO 'ME' AND DO NOT BOTHER THE REST OF THE LIST WITH THE REPY ALL....

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Please do your part to help save the sanity of others and reduce useless internet clutter. Be kind to your friends and consider if the mail you recieved is really worth sending to everyone you know. If you really think the information in a forwarded mail is worth passing on, then copy and paste the information from received emails into a new message instead of annoying people by forwarding with all the previous mailing lists and graphics and audio that comes with so many emails. Use email to write to your friends, they really do want to hear from you and what you have to say. If you talk to them, they will be more likely to talk to you, That's what email is for. Don't make a webpage out of your Webtv signature, do that on a real webpage. It only ties up internet connections and slows down the loading of the email for everyone. Few people are even going to bother looking at it anyway, and most don't want to hear your music blasting out at them either, any more than they want to hear the car sterio in the car next to them in traffic. It's your personal message that your friends want to see when they open your email so be a friend to them and make it easy for them to open and read your messages. Don't dump your trash in your neighbor's yard. Send them the kind of email you would like to receive from them and be sure to include a link to my site :-)

Send this page to everyone you know

or your mailbox will be filled with forwards and spam.